8 people you’d never guess were accountants!

Getting your accounting done by an archaeologist, comedian, or mystery author might sound ridiculous … but theoretically, you could make it happen. People with all kinds of different careers have trained or worked as accountants, including:

1. John Grisham

John Grisham got his undergraduate degree in accounting as part of a plan to become a tax lawyer, but ended up switching specialties to civil litigation.

2. José María Soler García

Besides being an accountant, José María Soler García was also a folklorist, mail carrier, and archaeologist who discovered Treasure of Villena, the second biggest hoard of gold ever found in Europe.

3. JP Morgan

JP Morgan got his start as a junior accountant on Wall Street, five years before he founded his own company and started building his business empire.

4. Bruce Marshall

Expat novelist Bruce Marshall is best known for his books Father Malachy’s Miracle and The While Rabbit, but he was also an accountant for a lot of his writing career. In his own words,

“I am an accountant who writes books. In accounting circles I am hailed as a great writer. Among novelists I am assumed to be a competent accountant”.

5. Allen Klein

You actually might not want Allen Klein to take care of your finances — although he was the manager of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, he was also sent to jail for making a false statement on his tax return, and is thought to have done some pretty sketchy things with song rights and album sales.

6. Josiah Wedgwood

Although he’s better known for his pottery, Josiah Wedgwood actually developed the practice of cost accounting after catching his head clerk embezzling.

7. Walter Diemer

Walter Diemer invented bubble gum in his spare time while working as an accountant. He transferred into sales, and by the time he retired was known for riding a big tricycle around his retirement village handing out gum to children.

8. Bob Newhart

Comedian Bob Newhart started out working as an accountant for a gypsum company, but with his motto of “That’s close enough”, and practice of taking care of imbalances in petty cash with his own money, it wasn’t meant to be.